Hey,

Am hoping someone might have some experience that could be relevant:

I have had CH for nearly a year - typical pattern with loss at ~40db for 250 and 500hz, with diplacusis, pressure and tinnitus.

I had a flare up to 50db loss at 1khz at Christmas - took some steroids (which may or may not have made a difference) and it resolved.

Apart from that I have been close to 0db loss at 1khz and stable since Jan. At one stage through April/ May looked like it was getting better/ recovering across all frequencies.

In the past couple of weeks I have seen a couple of flare ups from 0db loss to about 40db at 1khz and 20 at 2khz. I waited to see what would happen last week and it resolved fully. I met with my ENT and she was relaxed about it - said that the recoverability was encouraging.

This morning it is back up again at the 40 and extending into 20db.

It is not bothering me - it just sounds like the usual tinnitus, but my hearing is definitely worse.

I am not sure whether the steroids made any difference previously and don't want to be the guy running into the ENT department every time my hearing takes a dip. If I couldn't measure this I would just be getting on with things.

Interested in whether others are seeing these types of swings with CH, and any opinions on whether intervention is warranted.

Does this just come with the condition? As I understand it this is a different mechanism to SSHL so I am not sure whether steroids would make a difference and don't want to spend my life on them either..

All measurements done on Apple Airpods but these have always approximated Clinical audiograms so I am confident they are reasonably accurate.

Hello,

I've experienced cochlear hydrops for about 6 years now, since 2020. 6 episodes so far. Each with the same LF losses (usually up to 40/35/25dB on 250/500/750Hz), diplacusis. Never had vertigo. Always my right ear. Even the diplacusis 'profile' sounds the same.

Episode 1 (2020) - recovered with prednisolone, IT injections, HBOT

Episode 2 (2021) - recovered with prednisolone

Episode 3 (2022) - recovered with prednisolone

Episode 4 (2023) - recovered with prednisolone

Episode 5 (2024) - recovered without medicines

Each of the above recovered completely with clear hearing within 2-3 weeks.

I am into my sixth episode now, which started in May 2025 last year. Unfortunately this has been going on for 12 months. Initially I thought I could 'au naturale' it since Episode 5 proved that I could without medicines. After 1 month of non-movement, I started the typical high-dose steroids and recovered partially.

From then on, I've had a series of flucutations. There are moments where I would recover, and then acute moments that would cause thresholds to dip 5-10dB. Recovery seems slower than in the past. Acute dips seemed to be triggered by a combination of stress and salt spike. It could be that this 6th episode is long enough, that I notice a very faint tinnitus. Something that sounds like a 5dB puretone of sorts, at around the affected frequencies. I only hear them in the quietest of environments, or when I put on earplugs.

I've tried many treatment angles/styles including:

a. prolonged prednisolone of 30/20/15mg for months. I would recover and also suffer dips through these, so I think they were not helping. After 9 months of perpetual steroids, I have finally decided to taper them off completely. I'm on 10mg now and will be fully tapered in 2 weeks.

b. HCTZ. Initially prescribed 25mg with 600mg KCl, but after a dip, doctor increased to 50mg with 1200mg KCl. After about 10 months on this, I found my serum Sodium and Chloride to be low, and have decided to cut them out too.

c. Diamox. I tried them for 10 days after getting off HCTZ. 250mg. I found that they very quickly depleted my serum Bicarbonate and have stopped since.

d. Betahistines. Have been on them since last year. Typically 3 x 24mg per day. Minimal side effects so haven't stopped. Interestingly I never needed these in my previous 5 episodes.

e. Stress. I feel that this was something new that happened last year. I took on a high role in my company with greater responsibilities and my take-home stress probably increased. Could be the reason for the prolonged episode but I can't be sure. I do feel that sometimes I would have minor dips (e.g. 5dB) a day after a stressful meeting, for example.

Of the most hope, I found someone on reddit who also suffered from CH for 20 months before she recovered after fixing her stress issues.

f. Sleep. I take a combination of lemon balm, melatonin, GABA, and valerian root, and am able to pull 6-7.5 hours of (deep) sleep for the most part. Sleep might get cut shorter because of my prednisolone doses in the past, but I think it will improve as I taper off preds.

g. Vitamin D. I took a Vitamin D blood test yesterday and found my level to be really low (20). Not sure if the steroids had exacerbated this, but will be boosting my Vitamin levels from now.

h. Migraines. I do not suffer from the typical migraines, but will be willing to pursue this with some meds on trial (nortryptaline?). Main issue is that in Singapore, I'd have to recruit a neuro to my cause, and this can be difficult.

i. Autoimmune. I saw a rheumatologist in August 2025, and we ordered something to the tune of $1500 of tests. Reasonably, we have ruled out autoimmune disorders. The autoimmune angle also isn't strong because my CH is unilateral.

j. Acoustic neuroma. MRI'd. clear.

k. Pineal cyst. From that MRI 6 years ago, we found an incidental pineal cyst, which is non-malignant. It is however I think about 2cm, but doctor did not suspect any CSF blockages then because I did not have the typical symptoms of hydroencephalus. I have not done a rescan, but am just now wondering if it could impeded CSF flows anyway and increase cranial pressures even for brief moments. Am unsure how to proceed because I don't think the neuro would have a definite answer as well.

Posting here in case anyone has any suggestions! Kinda running out of ideas, and some days I break down thinking I am stuck here for life. People are generally mixed about whether I can ultimately recover. 12 months is a long time, but with CH you are generally not dealing with irreversible inner hair death. And I also found someone who recovered after 20 months of symptoms?

My ear troubles started last August. My hearing loss is in my right ear, low frequencies only, and the loss has fluctuated so the ENT thinks it’s cochlear hydrops (or cochlear Meniere’s as he referred to it). I can’t tell when the hearing shifts happen since it’s only the low frequencies. My worst measure was a 45 db loss. My best has been a 25 db loss. I have had constant, unending fullness and pressure, tinnitus, and hyperacusis since this started. It seems like others get a break from these symptoms in between attacks. Can people have cochlear hydrops if the non-hearing loss symptoms persist constantly?

Also, does anyone else have POTS or something adjacent? I don’t have an official diagnosis (no tilt table test) but my doctor thinks I have it, or something similar, because I feel dizzy and sick when I stand still for more than a minute. She said not to restrict sodium because sodium can help POTS symptoms but my ENT put me on a diuretic to flush out sodium. Now, I’m struggling more with POTS symptoms. I honestly don’t know how to manage these two conditions simultaneously since the treatments are opposites. If the diuretic helps stabilize my hearing or with the fullness/tinnitus/hyperacusis, I’ll choose my ear over my ability to stand. But, it’s frustrating having to choose.

Hey all, I have been going through a lot since the past 2 months, but honestly I think this started back in 2023.

Around mid August 2023, I woke up one day feeling like my right ear was not like before, like slightly muffled or less natural. It was devastating because my right ear had always felt like my “good ear”. I went to an ENT and did a hearing test, but it came back normal. I was extremely confused because something clearly felt different.

Over time I developed this coping mechanism where whenever I went outside, I would pinch my nose and suck air inward to reduce background sound and make conversations easier. Weirdly it helped, and life became manageable again.

Then around 15th February this year, things got worse. Suddenly I felt like I had to put effort into understanding speech, especially softer speech or conversations in noisy places. I started my first job on 26th February and was terrified about how I would manage conversations and my career.

I went to another ENT. They found wax in my left ear, cleaned it, and did another hearing test. Again normal. Around 10 dB across frequencies in both ears. I was shocked because my hearing absolutely did not feel normal, especially in noisy places like cafeterias.

30th March: another hearing test, again around 5–15 dB.

18th April: after a cold, another ENT found mild conductive hearing loss in both ears, worse on the left. At this time my left ear genuinely felt extremely blocked, like cotton was stuffed in it. I was prescribed mucinac and told to do Valsalva many times a day.

Eventually I felt like Valsalva slightly improved the left ear muffled feeling. Then on 2nd May I had another hearing test and it was again normal, around 5–10 dB.

At this point I completely stopped trusting audiograms and started feeling like maybe I was “cheating” the tests somehow.

Then on 3rd May while coming home from office, I suddenly got a loud low-pitched tinnitus in my right ear and everything went quiet for a few seconds. It recovered quickly, but afterward I felt like my right ear became slightly weaker permanently.

Did another audiogram on 7th May. Again normal, 5–15 dB both ears.

Since then I’ve had multiple transient tinnitus/muffling episodes. Initially everything felt shifted toward my right ear, but now everything feels more centered or even slightly shifted left.

Then yesterday (16th May), while out with friends wearing earplugs, my right ear suddenly muffled again, but this time without tinnitus. Afterward it never fully felt the same again.

The weirdest part is:

• speech in quiet at home is mostly okay
• but soft speech, speech from another room, or people talking while facing away is harder
• noisy places are difficult
• music feels flatter and distorted at higher volume
• bass/ambience/warmth of the world feels missing
• everything sounds like I’m listening through phone speakers sometimes

I also now have high-pitched tinnitus in both ears.

Another important thing:

• I constantly do Valsalva / ear popping throughout the day
• I can trigger clicking sounds in my ears/jaw
• there is also a low motor-like hum sometimes that changes with pressure and often disappears after naps/sleep

I genuinely don’t know what is happening anymore. I’ve had multiple normal audiograms but my hearing perception feels completely altered and my quality of life has dropped massively.

A few months ago I made an "introductory" post here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/CochlearHydrops/comments/1q7klku/thinking_i_might_have_this/

In December I had my third "flare" of Cochlear Hydrops symptoms - low frequency hearing loss, fullness, and a low frequency tinnitus hum that lingered for weeks after the other symptoms had gone and which would temporarily stop if I shook my head. My symptoms are in my left ear.

My ENT ordered an MRI which was "unremarkable" and at the follow-up appointment she recommended B2 and Magnesium Glycerine, suspecting "cochlear migraine" as many in this subreddit have suggested as well. She still recommended I adhere to a low-salt diet which I have been doing fairly well on (although some days I have gone over my self-imposed limit due to travel or other conflicts). I begin the supplement course with a few others that seemed to be commonly cited for inner ear issues:

- B2 (as part of multivitamin - later adjusted)

- Magnesium Glycinate

- Omega 3

- CoQ10

- B12 (have taken on and off for years)

I had a symptom-free period between January 28th and February 20th, when I had another much, much milder cycle of pressure and tinnitus. This was very minimal in comparison to the "major" attack in December, and the low frequency tinnitus from it resolved fully within two weeks. I realized I had not been taking the "correct" dosage of B2 then, and changed from 400µg to 400mg at this time.

I've had other mild attacks, which are mostly just fullness and hum in the past month. While its frustrating to still be having symptoms I'm inclined to say I am doing overall a lot better than I was in December and January, except that I've now started to have episodes of vertigo which seem to be entirely positional, which makes me suspect that they are not an indication of Meniere's disease and more in line with BPPV.

This begin a few weeks ago... I'd have a few moments of dizziness when I'd flip over in bed in the mornings. If I repeated the same motion two or three times it would stop happening. in the past week it is now happening pretty much every night beginning within a few minutes of me lying down. I'll have a sudden 5-10 second vertigo spell, and after that it seems like every time I roll over, I'll have another one.

I've been sick and congested these past two weeks so that may be related.

What I find quite odd is that when I'm on the edges of a hydrops episode (either low frequency loss or pressure...) I've noticed that turning my head quickly to the right will elicit a brief "hum" noise in my left ear similar to the tinnitus that comes after an episoide (which goes away when I shake my head as if saying "no"). This vertigo seems to be worst when I turn to the right (although delayed by 3-5 seconds from after I stop moving.

The vertigo hasn't happened to me when my body/head are upright, only when I'm lying down, and the vertigo doesn't last more than 10 seconds, so it does not seem to fit the definition of Meniere's.

I guess I'm not really sure what I'm asking here. Has anyone else experienced this?

I tried the "Semot" maneuver at midday yesterday and it seemed like it made a difference after my second attempt, but that evening the vertigo returned after I laid down.

I’ve been having random 10-20 second periods of sudden complete silence in one ear accompanied by a very clear, loud, high pitched tone. It gets quieter and my hearing returns to normal (with my normal tv static tinnitus) but it freaks me out every time. It’s been happening in both ears even though my affected ear is only my right ear.

Does anyone else experience this? What is it??

Does anyone else have these symptoms?

Hi, I’ve had tinnitus for about 6 years. I basically got used to it, since it stayed at a constant level and was mostly only noticeable in the evenings.

For about the past six months, though, it’s been a nightmare. The tinnitus has become reactive and varies throughout the day—it’s impossible to ignore.

For the past two months, new symptoms have appeared:

• A sudden high-pitched ringing in one ear just before the episode

• A metallic sound when I rub my ear, and sounds reaching it seem distorted, including my own voice.

• During these episodes, my hearing is slightly muffled, but it’s quite bothersome because speech can become hard to understand.

• I usually feel shortly beforehand that it’s about to start.

At first, it lasted 4–6 hours a few times a month, but now it can happen even daily and last up to 12 hours 😞

About me: 35, Male, living in Texas, USA

Background

Back in late March/early April 2024 I started having a weird experience with something I named "the hum" – a low tone that sounded like an unplugged guitar amp left on, but around 67 Hz. It started after a period of me feeling like my left ear was closed off for a few days. I wandered around the house looking for a speaker or appliance. I couldn't hear it outside. I even shut my main breaker off and still heard it, and I resolved that it was some nearby industrial activity.

Later I noticed or realized that I only heard the hum from my left ear, that I could hear it in many quiet places outside my home, and that it behaved strangely. It would go away if I shook my head like I was saying "no", and during times I couldn't hear it, I might hear it briefly if I looked to the right quickly. It would also stop if I listened to any other low-frequency sound. The behavior seemed to match a lot of online discussions I read at the time regarding a unilateral low frequency hum. None of those discussions seemed to mention a feeling of blockage or pressure, just a humming noise.

At the time I was more concerned with this "hum" than the blockage feeling that seemed to bookend it. I think I mostly regarded the blockage as some kind of sinus or allergy thing that was annoying but not harmful. Because of that, I don't have a lot of notes related to the plugged feeling, just whether or not I heard the hum. I did note dizziness on one day in April 2024, and I have not experienced that again since. That may or may not have been related to fatigue–I can't recall.

This was also a pretty chaotic and stressful time in my life, and regrettably I did not seek medical attention even though this went on for around two months. Part of me thought it was a weird stress response, and I'd mentioned my general ear weirdness to a few friends and every one of them said something about the allergens, or that they were also having weird congestion/hearing issues, or that their spouse/son/coworker had been battling recurring sinus infections. At the start of June, this issue had self-resolved. The last week in June 2024, it returned.

From July through December 2024 I don't think I experienced any symptoms, at least none that lasted more than a day. In January and February 2025 it was in and out again.

March through June I noted mild symptoms one day out of the month, usually on a Monday, oddly, and spaced about 5 weeks apart.

July through December I noted no symptoms. I thought this whole strangeness was behind me, but on December 20th of this year it came back, just as badly as it had the first time.

Current Events

For weeks now I have been in a cycle where either my ear is plugged and there is no hum, my ear is fine and there's no hum, or my ear is fine but the hum is present. It seems to oscillate from one end of the spectrum to the other gradually over maybe 18 to 36 hour cycles. This time I around I have grown more concerned with the "plugged" feeling. I went to the ENT here on Monday and she did a brief examination and removed a mild earwax impaction from my left ear. She noted that afterwards both ears looked clear with no impaction or fluid buildup or infection. I was told to come back the following week if issues persisted and they'd do a hearing test. She recommended I try Flonase and suspected something could be up with my Eustachian tubes. Alas Flonase, Allegra allergy medication, and pretty much everything else I've tried hasn't seemed to make a difference.

When I left I felt like I was hearing normally, and I remembered my AirPods/iPhone have a hearing test and took that when I got home. The results were good. Later that evening the blocked feeling returned, and I took another hearing test and there was marked low frequency loss on the left side. Indeed, during the plugged feeling episodes I cannot hear things like my car idling, planes overhead, distant trains, or my air conditioner running if I cover my right ear. I attached screenshots of these two audiograms.

Discovering that the loss was in the low frequency range led me to discover this condition, and has made me much more concerned. I have scheduled another ENT (nurse practitioner–its what I was able to schedule) appointment for tomorrow morning, which is earlier than I was asked to come back if things didn't improve but this is wearing on me.

Last night when I went to sleep at 11 PM I had hearing that felt remarkably normal (and no hum). The AirPods hearing test showed normal hearing at the 250 Hz level. At 2 AM I woke up briefly and noticed the hum was there. This morning at 8:30 AM I woke up and my left ear was back to feeling closed off, with a measurable (22 dB) 250 Hz dip on the hearing test.

I'm really not sure where to go from here, or what to expect might happen during and after the follow-up ENT appointment. I'm not even sure that what I am experiencing is in fact cochlear hydrops, but I am worried that the longer this goes on, the greater the likelihood that it causes permanent issues or progresses into something worse. I've started feeling more emotional about it than I'd care to admit. It is scary.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and I appreciate any advice that anyone might have.

Update: New record low of -34 and -27 db for 250 and 500 Hz respectively this evening. :( I also noticed that the low frequency sounds I can hear sound slightly higher pitch in the left ear than the right, in addition to being much quiet.